If we were to discount the reaction to the close calls of the Cold War (Cuban Missiles, Able Archer), was the rest of the conflict a scarier time to live in (American or not) than now? Was Nuclear war always seemingly inevitable or were there hopes that the whole situation could one day diffuse?

Also is the Covid pandemic less scary than the average day in, say, the 1960s or 80s?

(And if I, the perseverating poli-scientist I am, freaked out over North Korea or Iran, how often would the cold war have given me panic attacks?)